London: Tea Time in Wonderland

I still remember discovering Hirst’s work. Pure Britart, people used to say.
The Royal Academy had just opened its Sensation show, meant of course to stop you in your tracks, shock you.
You could count on him for that. Animals in formaldehyde, including a pig cut in two, each part going in a different direction. This little piggy goes to the market… And a glass cage sheltering a piece of meat, a crowd of flies nesting, flying away, dying. A perpetual movement.

Hirst is a kind of modern philosopher. He plays with death as a theme, juggles with skulls whether splashed with colours or covered with diamonds, questions the fragility of life by crushing butterflies in his work or by creating rows of perfect circles. You’ll see a few examples @ the Pop Life exhibition @ the Tate

And then one day, he discovers Bacon. Back to the brushes – old school for such a modern artist! He’s inspired. The Wallace Collection has 25 of his paintings in stock.

Ok, to be frank, the first look can be disappointing. Aren’t these lines a bit too easy, a bit childish? Start again, take your time.

Admire the diamond blue used – enough to illuminate the painting on its own. Of course, skulls are everywhere. But look carefully – so many details linked to his favourite themes or his life… A flass of water, an ashtray (He stopped drinking and smoking in 2002, which destroyed his marriage, too hard a transition)…. The shark, reference to one of his first success, sold a fortune… Discreet series of circles… Butterflies… An ode to the complexity(and sometimes absurdity) of life, the passing time.

Worth seeing just for the exploding strength of White Roses and butterflies…

Damien Hirst -  No love lost, blue paintings
The Wallace Collection
Hertford House
Manchester Square London
W1U 3BN
Gratuit!

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